Saturday, July 16, 2016

I am keenly interested in portraying the human condition and our connection to each other, our similarities, the struggles and joys we all share. Women's and children’s issues are of special interest to me and some of my work has expanded to social commentary. I like to create images that tell a story with multiple layers of meaning to draw in the viewer and elicit a strong emotional response. About a year and a half ago my work took a turn and became much more personal. I wanted to overcome personal fears of exposing myself too much to others by telling more of my own personal story. This work resulted in my current solo exhibition at TAG Gallery titled Wende/Transformation.

I was born in 1962’s West-Berlin, in close proximity to the Berlin Wall and spent my formative years there among a people that in general are very reserved. Within my own family there were walls built up and torn down which shouldn’t have been. I realized walls were a major theme running throughout my life and for the first time I wanted to explore something so personal through my work. Making the resulting paintings public was one way of my breaking down an internal wall I had built up myself. All my life I had erected my own walls of protection and fears but since moving to the wide open spaces of the American Southwest I had been learning to tear them down.

With this continuing series I am using the Berlin Wall as metaphor for all of the walls in our lives. Little did I know when I started this series last year just how politically timely it would be now with the current talk of division and building walls! The paintings examine the endless contradiction and effects of walls. Walls are real and physical, imagined and psychological. They make visible one’s fears, anxieties and insecurities. They separate and yet offer a common purpose. They divide us yet invite us to scale them and tear them down, to come together again. They offer comfort, though false, yet feed hate and fear. They isolate and protect. Walls keep people out AND in. They shelter us and yet make us want to break free. They repel and tempt. They control and we rebel. They are a prison and a freedom. We can choose to erect them or tear them down.

When I spotted the graffiti of the angel on an actual left over piece of the Berlin wall still standing, I knew it would perfectly illustrate my point of actually having felt protected by this ugly horrible wall as a child. “Schutzengel” literally translates to “protection angel”. Since I lived on the West side I never felt oppressed or locked in as a child in Berlin, but actually saw the wall as protecting us from the Russians. Only when we ventured over into East Germany, either to visit or travel through, did I feel the oppression. The piece had to be very large in scale (40”x60”) and the figure about life size so the viewer might feel the oppression of the wall on one hand and the sense of protection from the large angel on the other.

Daggi Wallace, Home, Pastel on paper, 20 x 20"

The model stands in front of a steel wall (the original was made out of concrete), a memorial to the division of the city from August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989, erected in commemoration of the victims of Communist tyranny. During the photo shoot the light above the model's head appeared spontaneously and immediately gave me the title for this painting, referring not only to my hometown but our true spiritual home which is always present even in the darkest moments.

Daggi Wallace, Mother, Did It Have To Be So High, Pastel on paper, 40 x 60"

As you can see titles are very important to me. They add yet another layer of meaning and accentuate the content of each piece. Some of these paintings’ titles are inspired by Pink Floyd. Their music (The Wall album of course, but others as well) has always been among my most played in the studio and became instrumental in the creation of these works for obvious reasons.

Both paintings and their titles refer not only to the Berlin wall but to my own upbringing. There are several small personal references "hidden in open view" in Daddy…, but the main theme of what our ancestors and families leave behind for us through our personal as well as the world's history is obvious. Personal references such as names and dates are also hidden in other pieces of this series.

The title for the next piece is from Leonard Cohen’s song Anthem which lyrics have had a profound impact on me. Here I used the addition of metal leaf to emphasize them.

Daggi Wallace, There Is a Crack In Everything, That's How the Light Gets In, Pastel and metal leaf on paper, 20 x 30"

Borders and Boundaries again refers to external political and internal personal restrictions and/or lack of them. By adding text and what I hope are intriguing titles the viewer is invited to venture beyond the obvious realistic image and explore the content of the work further.

Someone To Watch Over Me (Self Portrait At Age Three) is my most personal work yet. While I used models as stand-ins for myself in the previous paintings here I used a reference photo of myself at age three. Wanting to add even more content I used mixed media including collage from old newspaper images depicting the signs and watch towers I used to see along the wall. I used heavily applied red acrylic in the background dripping over an outline of West and East Berlin to emphasize the communist threat around my city. The piece is a reference to my having felt watched all the time but also wishing to have had someone to watch over me MORE at other times.

This series continues on to my figures in water paintings which on the surface appear to be nothing but pretty women in swimming pools but actually tell the story of how my emigration to America helped me step out from behind my walls and dive more freely into the deep end of life.

Daggi's current show, Wende/Transformation, will be at TAG through August 6.

Come meet Daggi tonight (July 16) at the Artists' Reception or in two weeks at an Artist Panel Discussion on Saturday, July 30, 3pm.

In her latest exhibition, When Women Were Birds, Suki Kuss continues her exploration of space and balance. After careful navigation, her artistic pilgrimage has led her to the world of femmage, a conflation of textile art and painting, pioneered by Picasso in 1912. The genre has transformed into an idiom of female empowerment, designed to confront sexist thought while dignifying and empowering women artists.

Using elements of embroidery, vintage laces, sheet music, fabric and dress patterns, Kuss utilizes a grid format to draw focus and allure to her abstracted "quilts". Scholars believe that femmage was first used to advance the origin of collage as women’s work, i.e. "quilting and patching together", however Kuss has developed her own interpretation of the craft.

Implementing traditional feminine pieces and textures throughout her collages and artworks, When Women Were Birds acts as a stark response to the patriarchal history of art. Although Kuss’ subdued palette differs from the bold colors of the original femmage work, there is an added element of contemplative quietude that reflects the delicate touch of a woman’s hand. Symbols of traditional male power are subverted for the feminine and delicate. And yet, Kuss’ work illustrates that the delicate, can be, and is in fact, powerful.

Camey McGilvray – MAD AS HELL

Camey McGilvray, Crows Exchanging Viewpoints, Aluminum, 24 x 33 x 2"

The title of artist Camey McGilvray’s newest exhibition, MAD AS HELL, comes from a legendary call to arms: In the iconic film Network (1976). TV commentator Howard Beale tells his audience, “All I know is first you’ve got to get mad.” He asks the viewer to get up right now, go over to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell, “I’M MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!”

McGilvray senses the palpable anger in America today, much of it directed toward our representatives in Washington. “People from all segments of society and both ends of the political spectrum have reached the anger stage. They are fed up and are demanding change for the better from our elected officials.” In her artwork, McGilvray targets these culprits, whom she sees as over-promising and under-delivering.

The look of the show is bold and striking. All pieces are aluminum and only one other color, black, is used in each of the vividly described scenes. Crows are used to advance the narrative and when they speak, they do so in grawlix. “I love crows.” Says McGilvray. “They are mysterious and magnificent and can portray every emotion.”

McGilvray sees our elected officials in Washington as mostly a bunch of entrenched old crows sitting around talking past one another and that is the way she has depicted them in her artwork. “They care more about power and getting reelected and are more responsive and beholden to lobbyists than they are to their own constituents. They need to know that We the People are MAD AS HELL and we’re not going to take it anymore!”

Daggi Wallace – Wende/Transformation

Daggi Wallace, Schutzengal (Guardian Angel), Pastel, 40 x 60"

Daggi Wallace’s debut exhibition at TAG explores her keen interest in portraying the human condition and our sublime connection to one another, our similarities, and the common struggles and joys we all share. In Wende/Transformation Wallace has created detailed, yet striking imagery that pushes the boundaries of realism while simultaneously peeling back the layers of her own personal journey of self-discovery to draw in the viewer and elicit a strong emotional response.

This past year has incited a grand change in Wallace. Wende/Transformation is the outcome of sharing more of her own personal journey as she utilizes the Berlin Wall as a metaphor for all of the walls, external and internal, in our lives. Born behind a wall in 1962’s West Berlin, in close proximity to the actual wall, Wallace spent her formative years in a culture and a family where emotional walls often stifled fostering relationships.

This series depicts the beginning of Wallace breaking down the internal wall she had built up for herself as a young woman as she left behind the Berlin Wall to move to the physically and spiritually wide-open spaces of the American Southwest. In illustrating this transformation, Wallace chose to use young models at the age she was at the time of her emigration as stand-ins for herself, a twist on the typical self-portrait.

Wende/Transformation examines the endless contradiction and effects of the walls behind which we often find ourselves. They are real and physical, imagined and psychological. They make visible one’s fears, anxieties and insecurities. They separate and yet offer a common purpose. They divide us yet invite us to scale them and tear them down, to come together again. They offer comfort, though false, yet feed hate and fear. They isolate and protect. Walls keep people out AND in. They shelter us and yet make us want to break free. They repel and tempt. They control and we rebel. They are a prison and a freedom. We can choose to erect them or tear them down.

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TAG is a fine art gallery located on Miracle Mile, Los Angeles. The gallery is home to a diverse collection by Los Angeles-area artists working in all mediums. Since it was founded more than two decades ago, TAG has represented award-winning artists and attracted an international clientele. As an artist-owned business capped at 40 artists, a limited number of new artists are periodically selected for gallery representation through a highly competitive jury process.